We return once more to the 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, which finished a few days ago. The final round was a thrilling affair, and the closing ceremony a pleasant one, when both Vassily Ivanchuk and Magnus gave a brief speech. Final video.

The 19th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament took place at the Palais de la Mediterranée in Nice, France, from March 12 to 25, 2010. The event was organized by the Association Max Euwe of chess maecenas Joop van Oosterom, which is based in Monaco. The total prize-fund is € 216,000.

The following twelve grandmasters took part: Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2813), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2790), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2782), Alexander Grischuk (Russia, 2756), Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2750), Peter Svidler (Russia, 2750), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2748), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan, 2740), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine, 2737), Sergey Karjakin (Russia, 2725), Leinier Dominguez (Cuba, 2713) and Jan Smeets (The Netherlands, 2651).

Videos

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN: Blindfold | Rapid, via TWIC